Penguin under Northern Lights

For a person who originates from a country that other people travel to to see the Northern Lights, it's rather ironic that I've never seen them. But I love the magical photos showing those dancing lights. And I love the techniques used in crafting to re-create the magical feeling of the Northern Lights. Just google Norther Lights crafting video, there are plenty of great tutorials out there.

I started by creating the northern lights backgrounds. For the first card I used Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon and Cracked Pistachio, and for the other I used Seedless Preserves, Abandoned Coral, Fossilized Amber and Peacock Feathers. I used foam pads to ink the coloured inks in a diagonal pattern across the card. Then I added Chipped sapphire, covering some of the coloured bits to create more of an illusion of the magical dancing lights. Last, I added Black Soot ink around the edges, smudging it gently over parts of the coloured bits. When I was happy with the way the sky looked, I added some stars using a white gel pen. Then I die cut the treeline from black card, and die cut the Northern Lights panel and black treeline panel using a Stitched Rectangle die.

Next, I stamped the super cute little Winter Penguin onto white card and coloured with Copics, doing the same with the sheet of ice from Critters in the Arctic. Then I die cut both images using the matching dies. Next I stamped the sentiment from Lawn Fawn's Happy Everything in Versamark and heat embossed in white embossing powder. After attaching everything onto the front panel, all that was needed was to die cut a mat in matching colour using the next size of Stitched Rectangle die, and attached onto white card. I absolutely adore these little happy penguins, skating under the Northern Lights. 

I would like to contribute to the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Time Out Challenges - Be inspired by "Snowflakes are Winter's Butterflies" where I was inspired by the winter theme
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Die cuts or punches 
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Sponging or Brayering
Crafting for All Seasons - Brrrr It's Cold Outside

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, 240 gsm black, purple and turquoise card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Penguin, Happy Everything, Critters in the Arctic and matching dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark and Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Abandoned Coral, Cracked Pistachio, Fossilized Amber, Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers, Seedless Preserves and Squeezed Lemonade, Copics 
Other: Lawn Fawn Forest Border and Stitched Rectangle dies, Papermania Seafoam White embossing Powder, Signo White Gel Pen

Flamingo a go-go

Wow this work stuff really gets in the way of the nice things in life, doesn't it. I am so happy it's the weekend, so I can have some crafty time. Last night as I got home I found a nice little parcel waiting for me. A while ago I won a gift certificate for Your Next Stamp, and after much to-ing and fro-ing, I picked my stamp sets. And as soon as this cheery little flamingo friend popped out of the envelope I had to take him out for a little play. 

I was inspired by the very flamingo-y colours over at Colour Me...! this week as well as the similarly flamingo-y colours over at Just Us Girls, where I wasn't so much inspired by the Christmas theme as I was by the pink and silver colours. I'm also linking up over at ABC Challenges where V is for Violet, The Crafty Addicts where the theme is Anything Goes/Use Die cuts, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes this week and In The Pink where the theme is Your Favourite Stamp (they say it's ok to use your current favourite stamp, and I'm happy enough to go with that!)

For the card, I used my favourite technique - watercolouring - to create the background. I started by die cutting a panel from watercolour paper, and brushed loads of water onto the paper. I then added Distress Inks in Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves and even more water and spread the ink around by tilting the paper. Last, I flicked some ink onto the card. Then I stamped the flamingo onto white card, coloured using Copics and fussy cut him. I also die cut two Congrats sentiments in purple and pink and attached them along with the flamingo onto the background. Last, I added some silver sequins. 

For the tag, I stamped the flamingo onto hammered white card, coloured with Copics and die cut using the Lawn Fawn Tag You're It die. Next, I used some ink that was left over from the card, and smudged it around the flamingo. Last, I added some sequins, ribbon and twine. 

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, scraps of 240 gsm card in bright purple and pink, Hammered white 300 gsm card

Stamps: You Next Stamp Fred and Ginger

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves

Colouring: Copics R34, RV29

Other: Lawn Fawn Scripty Congrats, Tag You're It and Stitched Rectangle Dies, silver sequins, ribbon and twine from my stash

Holly Jolly - Embossing

Welcome back to another challenge from Holly Jolly! Thank you for everyone who linked up with our Ribbon and Pearls challenge, we loved looking at your fabulous creations. Don't forget to check out the winners post from yesterday to see if you are one of our winners or top picks. This time we are challenging you to use embossing. Any type of embossing you like, I used heat embossing for my card today. Hop over to Holly Jolly to find more inspiration from the fabulous DT. As usual, we have generous sponsors who are giving away prizes to the winners. This time we are sponsored by The Stamping Boutique, Sami Stamps and Di's Digis. I got to play with the super cute Christmas Cheese image from Sami Stamps.

I started by creating the background. I stamped images from Stampin' Up Christmas Cheer in Versamark and heat embossed using clear powder. Then I used yellow, red and orange Distress inks to ink the card. Last, I sprayed water on the background to fade the ink and create a distressed look. I coloured the cute little Christmas Cheese image using Copics and die cut with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Circles die and inked around the edges of the die cut with red ink. I also added some Ice Stickes to the Santa's hat. I stamped the sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed in white onto scraps of card. I also stamped inside by colouring the stamps using markers to get an ombre effect.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Christmas
Unicorn Challenge Blog - Christmas is Coming
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
Sami Stamps - Anything Goes
Alphabet Challenge - T is for Tis' The Season
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes
Crafting With Friends - Anything Goes
Creative Fingers Challenge - Anything Goes
Simply Papercraft Challenge - Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments - Anything Goes plus a sentiment

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft Ruby Red and grey, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Sami Stamps digi Christmas Cheese, Stampin' Up Christmas Cheer, Endless Wishes, Lawn Fawn Violet's ABC

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz distress inks Fossilized Amber, Abandoned Coral, Spiced Marmalade, Festive Berries, Copics

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Circles, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Ranger clear embossing powder

Thank you, you are so sweet!

Someone recently helped me with a big thing. Actually, it's already quite a few weeks ago. I wanted to get a little something for them as a thank you, but as usual, it has taken me an eternity to actually manage to complete the complicated task of buying a box of chocolates. I know, for a project manager, I suck at managing anything outside of work (whether or not I manage to do it at work is currently debatable also...). Anyhow, to make up for the delay in getting the thank you to the person, I thought at least I can make it look nice. After all, isn't that the whole justification of buying tons and tons of crafting supplies? So not only did I make a thank you card with some sweets on (I don't have a stamp with Ferrero Rochers, so I thought I would just go with something else sweet I happened to have a stamp for), but also a tag to go on the box of chocs. 

Today's card and tag were inspired by the wonderful inspiration image over at The Challenge.  I loved everything about the image - the colours, the macaroons of course and the woodgrain of the table. The layout was inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also linking up with the Thank You themed challenges over at Shopping Our Stash and Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. 

I started by die cutting a panel using the Stitched Rectangle dies from watercolour paper. I stamped the gorgeous macarons in archival ink and watercoloured with Distress inks. I stamped the sentiments in Marina Mist, and matted the front panel on Marina Mist cardstock before attaching to kraft card stamped with the Hardwood stamp. For the tag, I die cut the tag from Marina Mist card using a die from Tag Your're It. I stamped the matching stamp in black onto kraft card, and fussy cut the inside panel for the tag. I stamped macarons in Vintage Photo and partly watercoloured them. Last, I stamped and die cut the banner, and smudged some Marina Mist ink onto it before stamping the sentiment, also from Tag You're It. Last, I added some Tim Holtz paper twine.

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Marina Mist card, kraft card
Ink: Stampin' Up Marina Mist, Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and Ground Espresso
Stamps: STAMPlorations Sugar Rush, Stampin' Up Hardwood, Lawn Fawn Scripty Sayings, Tag Your're It and matching dies
Other: Tim Holtz Paper Twine

Welcome Baby from Down Under

First thing I did when I woke up this morning was heading to the craft room. It's been too long old friend! I had loads of fun getting out and old Lawn Fawn stamp set for the In With the Old challenge over at Lawnscaping.  I thought this would be a perfect baby card for a friend, as she is from Australia. I was inspired by the awesome sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and the colours over at Your Next Stamp 

 

I die cut the grass using the Lawn Fawn Grassy border die, and the front panel from watercolour paper using a Stitched Rectangle die. I watercoloured the sky using Broken China Distress ink, and the grass using Peeled Paint. Then I stamped the adorable kangaroo and koala from Critters down under, coloured them with Copics and die cut using matching dies. Last, I stamped the sentiment in black ink, attached a strip of Let's Polka DSP and adhered the front panel using foam tape.

Card: 300 gsm watercolour card, white hammered 300 gsm card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Down Under and matching dies

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress ink Broken China and Peeled Paint

Colouring: Copics E00, E34, E39, YG11, YG13, YG15

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka

Other: Lawn Fawn Grassy Border and Stitched Rectangle dies

Kraft candles

Onwards and upwards we go with blog post two of the day. It's funny how your favourite crafting supplies change over time. I have so many stamp sets I no longer use, nor do I think I will ever use them again. I really need to put them on Ebay, hopefully I could get rid of them in a better way tham just throwing them in the trash. I have removed quite a bit of no-longer wanted crafting supplies from my craft room to make room for the things I really like and use a lot. I was re-organising my stamps as I finally received my order of more stamp storage pockets from Avery Elle, and I how have my new Lawn Fawn and STAMPlorations stamps all organised and in their own baskets in my craft room. 

When I was organising my stamps I realised I hadn't yet had a chance to play with my Christmas Candles stamp from STAMPlorations. And I thought it would be perfect for The Challenge where the theme is to use Red, White, Kraft and Silver. I'm also playing along with the Silver theme over at Inkspirational, the Precious Metals theme over at CAS-ual Fridays, the Kraft or Buttons theme over at Crimbo Crackers, the CAS theme over at The Glory of Christmas challenge and the STAMPlorations Anything Goes challenge.

I stamped the Christmas Candles and sentiment in Versamark onto kraft card and heat embossed them in silver. I used Tim Holtz distress inks to colour the poinsettias red, and Stampin' Up Whisper White ink to colour the candles. Then all that was needed was to simply use a Stitched Rectangle die to cut out the main panel and adhere it onto Real Red cardstock with foam adhesive.

Card: Stampin' Up Real Red, kraft card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Holiday Sketches Christmas Candles
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz distress inks Festive Berries, Fired Brick, Stampin' Up Whisper White 
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Papermania Silver embossing powder

Pinkie the Reindeer

To compensate for the lack of crafting time in the week, I'm making up for lost time in the weekend. So today I'm publishing not one but two posts (I would have published the other tomorrow, but they are both for challenges ending today). The Culinary Consultant enjoyed a boy's night out last night and has had a very uncharacteristic sleep-in to recuperate, so I have had a long quiet morning in the craft room. I started watching Mr Selfridge on Netflix, it's the perfect companion to crafting. Not too complex to follow when half-watching and half-listening, a bit of idle silliness. 

My first card of the day is inspired by the Pink, Green and White challenge over at Merry Monday. I decided to combine this colour scheme with the Reindeer challenge over at One Layer Christmas Cards. I'm also linking up my glittery reindeer over at ABC Christmas Challenges where the theme is W is for Wild Thing and over at Just Us Girls where the theme is watercolour (this is my 2nd entry for this challenge). Last but not least I'm also linking up over at the STAMPlorations Anything Goes challenge. 

I started by dabbing Versamark ink through the Christmas Reindeer stencil and heat embossed with holographic embossing powder. I then watercoloured the background in Mowed Lawn and Picked Raspeberry Distress inks. After drying the watercolour with a heat gun I heat embossed the sentiment and the snowflakes in white ink.

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress ink Mowed Lawn and Picked Raspberry

Stamps: STAMPlorations Holiday Sketches Christmas Candles, Lawn Fawn Winter Penguin

Other: STAMPlorations Christmas Reindeer stencil, Papermania Holographic embossing powder, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder

Happy penguin holidays

I was going to write a rant about my new job. And about pouring a huge mug of tea all over my living room carpet. But when I woke up, it was to a news feed of horror. So all that seems very irrelevant now. I don't have any words to express what I feel, nor am I even sure what I feel apart from deep sadness about the state of the world today.

It feels so trivial to go on to talk about crafting. But I haven't had a chance to craft all week as my life has been mad after accepting a new job. Sadly that will be the norm from now on. But I will still try to find some crafting time in the weekends when possible. I might need to get a cleaner though... you should see the house!! Or actually, no, you shouldn't. Anyways, I just wanted to do some watercolouring and colouring and I was very inspired by the current challenge over at The Friday Mashup where the theme is winter and use the colours pool, mint, slate and white. I combined that idea with inspiration from a few other challenges: the layout over at CAS(E) This Sketch, the watercolour theme over at Just Us Girls and the Cuddly Creatures theme over at Daring Cardmakers.

I started by watercolouring a background in Stampin' Up Pool Party and Pistachio Pudding inks on watercolour paper. I also got out my brand new super cuddly Lawn Fawn Winter Penguin stamp set and coloured it with Copics along with the sheet of ice from Critters in the Arctic. I die cut the watercolour paper with a die from Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles and stamped the sentiment from the Winter Penguin set in Stampin' Up Smoky Slate. Last, I added a few tiny little rhinestones from my stash, added some Wink of Stella and matted the panel on white card. 

Card: 300 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour paper, Hobbycraft 160 gsm card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Penguin, Critters in the Arctic and matching dies
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Smoky Slate, Pool Party and Pistachio Pudding
Colouring: Copics B00, BG10, C1, C3, C5, C9, YG11, YG13, YR00, YR02, 100
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, adhesive rhinestones, Wink of Stella glitter pen

Holly Jolly - Ribbons and Pearls

It's again time for a new challenge over at Holly Jolly. This time we are challenging you to use Ribbons and Pearls. Our sponsors this time are Melonheadz, Dr Digi and Eureka, and they are generously giving away prizes to our winners. Thank you to everyone who played along with our Snowman challenge, don't forget to check out our winners post if you joined us.

For my card, I got to play with a digi from Eureka called Wreath with Bird, which I coloured with Copics and fussy cut. I created the background by stamping the Stampin' Up Hardwood stamp onto kraft card. I die cut the sentiment and matted the front onto green card. Last, I added some red pearls to the wreath.

I would like to link up with the following challenges: 
Christmas Card Challenges - Anything Goes
Sparkles Christmas Challenges - Christmas Decorations 
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes
Unicorn Challenge - Christmas is coming
Crafting With Friends - Always Anything Goes
Creative Fingers Challenge - Anything Goes
Crafty Girl's Creations - Anything Goes

Card: Kraft card, 250 gsm craft card in Emerald Green and Lilac, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Eureka digi Wreath with Bird, Stampin' Up Hardwood
Ink: Stampin' Up Early Espresso 
Colouring: Copics YG11, YG13, YG17, R24, E34, E39, V93, V95, V99
Other: Lawn Fawn Merry Christmas border die, adhesive pearls from my stash

Alpaca my plaid scarf

Sometimes it's the small things in life which make me confused (although I admit I'm easily confused, so maybe it's just me). Like the division of people into morning showerers and evening showerers. I know most people take a shower when they wake up. However, I cannot get my head around this. To me, it makes more sense to shower in the evening for multiple reasons. Firstly, you get dirty during the day, and you would want to wash off said dirt before you get into bed so you don't bring all the grime and dirt of the day with you between your clean, white sheets (although I'm happy to admit that these days most people won't really get dirty in the sense of proper dirt, unless you are a keen gardener, farmer or maybe a building worker). The second reason is time. I'm much happier showering in the evening and the sleeping in that extra time in the morning. Three, if I shower in the morning I get so incredibly cold as soon as I step out of the shower, and this chill follows me most of the day. I was just reminded of this great divide yesterday morning as I actually had to take a morning shower, and then was cold most of the day. Oh well, we are all different. Just one of those small funny observations in life, particularly as I live with a morning showerer. 

I'm not the only one who is easily confused, my potted plant
has decided now is the time to flower again. It clearly doesn't
know it's winter from it's spring... 

After this deeply philosophical thought I should probably get onto today's card. I really wanted to play along with the Plush&Plaid challenge over at Curtain Call. And I thought the little alpaca from Lawn Fawn Winter Alpaca would look absolutely adorable in a plaid scarf. I was also inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and the colours over at Your Next Stamp.

The card in itself is quite simple, I stamped the winter alpaca onto Whisper White card, coloured with Copics and die cut with the matching die. I also stamped it onto the plaid paper and fussy cut the scarf. I die cut the circles using Lawn Fawn Stitched Circle dies, and stamped the sentiments from the Winter Alpaca set. Last I stamped the little snowflake and heart from the alpaca stamp set in Versamark all over the background, and die cut two snowflakes using Lawn Fawn Mini Snowflakes dies from the blue plaid paper. I added two mini adhesive rhinestones from my stash to the snowflakes for a bit of bling-bling.

Card: Coloured 240 gsm craft card beige, Stampin' Up Whisper White card, Vanguard card 010 Buff

Paper: Stampin' Up Sweater Weather

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Alpaca and matching dies

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark and Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Copics E34, E43 and E99

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Circle and Mini Snowflake dies, adhesive rhinestones from my stash

Detachable tag Christmas card

I have been reading a book called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I might have mentioned it some previous blog posts. It's quite interesting, and as opposed to many other books that talk more about the mindset and very elusive and abstract, this book has a lot of very practical and hands on ideas of increasing happiness in your life. One of the ones I have really taken to is reducing clutter and "stuff" in general. I have been going through my wardrobes, my random cupboards and trying to let go of things. Another idea I have read about in blogs relating to the same line of thinking is that we hold on to a lot of things just because we think we ought to. I'm not saying we shouldn't hold on to things that truly have sentimental value, of course we should, but I'm questioning whether we need to hold onto every single card we get sent for example. I have it in the back of my mind that it's somehow an obligation to hang on to them, and I have gone through a lot of my old birthday and Christmas cards, hanging on to those that I really find I have a sentimental connection to but getting rid of those that I feel I only keep "because I'm supposed to". This is such an interesting idea, I could go on about it for pages and pages. Particularly as this house is inhabited by another person who is very sentimentally attached to even the smallest things. It's quite interesting that my Mum is very minimalist, and she works hard to get rid of clutter, whereas the family of my dearest are very much sentimentally attached to a lot of things, so I think our attitude to how to connect with material possessions is strongly linked to the behaviour of our parents.

Anyhow, this got me thinking of my Christmas cards. Are people hanging onto them just because they feel they have to? Is there anything I can do to help them enjoy the thought that I have put into the cards, but then let go of them? Maybe there would be a way to get people to recycle the cards? And then the current, very ingenious sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch gave me an idea (I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of this, but I can't point to any specific inspiration where I would have seen this done). What if I make the tag detachable, and encourage people to use it for a gift. Then the remains are much easier to dispose of, as it's no longer a "proper" card. Plus there is the added benefit of recycling some of the materials, and hopefully bringing some joy to yet another person as well. 

The card without the tag and the reverse side of the tag.

For this card, I started by die cutting the tag using a die from Lawn Fawn Tag You're It from the purple paper from Let's Polka in the Dark. I stamped the matching tag onto red paper from the same collection, and fussy cut it to match the tag. Then I stamped the adorable little reindeer from Party Animal and added the gingerbread man and christmas hat from Holiday Party Animal, die cut with the matching dies and coloured with Copics. I die cut the Merry using the Merry Christmas border die from gold mirri card and stamped the smallest "Christmas" I could find in my stamp stash (it's from Stampin' Up Endless Wishes). I also stamped a greeting and some small images on the back of the tag in case the recipient of the card chooses to use it as intended.

I think next time I will edit the text to start "I would love it if
you wanted to recycle the tag" instead.

For the background, I brushed water onto watercolour cardstock I had cut using the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies. Then I added Tim Holtz Festive Berries and Seedless Preserves ink and blended them together. I also flicked some colour splotches using my watercolour brush. I really love playing with these watercolour backgrounds lately. I also heat embossed some gold speckles onto the background, although unfortunately it doesn't show very well in the picture. Then all that was needed was to attach the tag using a few small glue dots which I had "de-stickyfied" between my fingers so that the tag will pop off easily. I also added some twine, again it's detachable so it can be used to tie the tag to a present. I absolutely love this idea, and feel a bit bummed I have already created more cards than I need for Christmas. Oh well, next Christmas everyone is getting a detachable tag card from me, be pre-warned!

In addition to linking up with CAS(E) This Sketch, I would like to enter the Christmas Challenge over at Happy Little Stampers where the theme is Tag. I'm also playing along over at Time Out where the theme is Christmas Card with purple or pink. Last but not least there are a few Christmas themed blogs that inspired today's card, so I would like to link up with Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge where the theme is Bright Colours, the lovely Jingle Belles where the theme is Holiday food (talking about Gingerbread as it's my chosen Christmas food... did I tell you I got an alpaca cookie cutter when we went to the alpaca show last weekend? Can anyone say alpaca gingerbread for Christmas? Yaaay!!! To be honest, I really like reindeer as well, although given the cute fellow on the card, that's probably a bit morbid. If you haven't tried it, I would warmly recommend if you ever get a chance, but maybe not at Christmas...) and ABC Christmas Challenges where the theme is V is for Very Cute.  

Card: 300 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Whisper White card, gold mirri card

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka in the Dark

Stamps: Lawn Faw Party Animal, Holiday Party Animal, Thank You Tags, (&matching dies for all Lawn Fawn stamp sets), Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge and Endless Wishes

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark and Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz distress inks Seedless Preserves, Festive Berries

Colouring: Copics

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Merry Christmas border die, Tag You're It dies, red and white bakers twine from my stash

Get well soon

Just a very quick post today to publish a cute card I made earlier. I guess spending several days at home with a cold inspires you to make a get well soon card... I have created this card for the current Lawnscaping challenge where the theme is "Thinking of You". I thought the cute little party animals carrying a hot cuppa and a heart would be perfect to cheer up someone who isn't feeling well. The layout was inspired by the sketch over at CAS on Sunday, and the colours by this week's ColourQ. 

I started by brushing some water onto watercolour card that I had cut with a stitched die. I then added some Tim Holtz distress inks in Picked Raspberry and Mermaid Lagoon, and angled the card all different ways to spread the inks and make the blend. I also splattered some ink around on the card base. I stamped the cute little critters onto white cardstock, coloured with Copics and die cut using the matching dies. I stamped the sentiment in black, and attached the critters to the watercoloured panel. I created the background by stamping the Thinking About You sentiment multiple times onto the cardstock, and adhered the front panel using foam tape.

Card: 300 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour paper
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal, Holiday Party Animal and matching dies, Scripty Sayings
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Basic Gray, Tim Holtz distress inks Picked Raspberry, Mermaid Lagoon
Colouring: Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies